Harry Awurumibe with agency report

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) today in Cairo, Egypt kicked off a two-day workshop which brought together its eight-member CAF Safety and Security Experts Panel including Nigerian-born Dr. Christian Emeruwa to brainstorm and design safety and security training modules for the continental body.

The Panel is composed of experts representing each of the six zones within the CAF, who along with the assistance of  the world football ruling body FIFA, will identify key themes and areas of focus for the safety and security training modules.

At the heart of discussions was the necessity to strengthen the skill sets of safety and security officers at each of CAF’s 54 member associations so that they possess strong knowledge, are highly trained and confident in order to best execute Safety and Security operations during football matches.

Addressing the participants at the workshop CAF’s Deputy General Secretary, Anthony Baffoe highlighted the importance of having a curriculum for Safety and Security that will allow the imparting of professional skills and knowledge to all stakeholders.

“This workshop is extremely important for CAF as we are committed to improving safety and security in stadia across our continent. I believe that creating a curriculum for safety and security will be of tremendous benefit to all of CAF’s 54 Member Associations, who are already strongly committed to improving the safety and security of football fans, players and officials during matches”, Baffoe said.

Djibrilla Hamidou, Chairman of CAF’s Safety and Security Committee described today’s seminar as a major leap forward in improving the security of the game and further testimony of CAF’s commitment to the safety of all stakeholders.

One of the event participants, Ababacar Sene from Senegal said: “It was a good experience to exchange ideas and share knowledge with fellow experts towards developing content material for training of safety and security officials on the continent. It will impact positively on the safety and security at our various stadia”.